System and method for emergency notification content delivery

• US 8,412,147 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ochoa Optics LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hunter, Charles Eric, Ballou, Bernard L. Jr., Hebrank, John H., Fallon, James, Summer, Robert D., McNeil, Laurie
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DANH C
• Application Number:
  US11/469,348
• Publication Number:
  US 20070275690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,406 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/550.1, 340/539.13, 342/357.06
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/12 responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method for disseminating emergency notification content from an emergency originating source. The method comprising: delivering the emergency notification content from the emergency originating source to at least one transmitting party; selecting a subset of users from among a set of users for dissemination of the emergency notification content based on the subject matter of the emergency notification content; and delivering the emergency notification content from the at least one transmitting party to a device corresponding to each user from the selected subset of users.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive emergency notification content from a remote base, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of a user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

a sensor configured to sense at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

a computing device configured to determine that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

a notification mechanism configured to provide a notification responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the notification comprising information about the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a GPS location of the device to the remote base.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is selected from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, a video game controller, a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the notification mechanism comprises a display configured to display a visual reproduction of the emergency notification content.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the notification mechanism comprises a speaker configured to sound an audio reproduction of the emergency notification content.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface configured to request confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency, and further configured to provide the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

7. A device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive emergency notification content from a remote base, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of a user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

a sensor configured to sense at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

a computing device configured to determine that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

a transmitter configured to transmit a verification responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content has been received.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content is collaborated.

10. The device of claim 7, further comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a GPS location of the device to the remote base.

11. The device of claim 7, further comprising:

a user interface configured to request confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency, and further configured to provide the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

12. A method comprising:

receiving emergency notification content from a remote base by a user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of the user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

sensing at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

determining that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

providing a notification by the user device responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the notification comprising the information about the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising transmitting a GPS location of the user device from the user device to the remote location.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, and a video game controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the providing the notification comprises displaying a visual reproduction of the emergency notification content.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the providing the notification comprises sounding an audio reproduction of the emergency notification content.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

requesting confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency; and

providing the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

19. A method comprising:

receiving emergency notification content from a remote base by a user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of the user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

sensing at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

determining that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

transmitting a verification to the remote base responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content has been received.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content is collaborated.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising transmitting a GPS location of the user device to the remote base.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

requesting confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency; and

providing the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

24. A tangible computer readable medium comprising:

instructions for receiving emergency notification content from a remote base by a user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of the user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

instructions for sensing at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

instructions for determining that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

instructions for providing a notification by the user device responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the notification comprising the information about the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the instructions for providing the notification comprise instructions for displaying a visual reproduction of the emergency notification content.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein the instructions for providing the notification comprise instructions for sounding an audio reproduction of the emergency notification content.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 24, further comprising:

instructions for requesting confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency; and

instructions for providing the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

28. A tangible computer readable medium comprising:

instructions for receiving emergency notification content from a remote base by a user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of a user device, wherein the remote base is configured to determine to transmit the emergency notification content to the device based on the location of the user device;

instructions for sensing at least one characteristic of the location of the user device;

instructions for determining that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device; and

instructions for transmitting a verification to the remote base responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content has been received.

30. The computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content is collaborated.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 28, further comprising instructions for transmitting a GPS location of the user device to the remote base.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 28, further comprising:

instructions for requesting confirmation from the user that the user desires more information corresponding to the emergency; and

instructions for providing the user with the more information in response to receiving the confirmation from the user.

33. A system comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit emergency notification content to a user device based on the location of the user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about an emergency corresponding to a location of a user device, wherein the user device is configured to;

sense at least one characteristic of the location of the user device,

determine that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, and

transmit a verification responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content; and

a receiver configured to receive the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content from the user device.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content has been received.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the verification indicates that the emergency notification content is collaborated.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the user device is further configured to transmit a GPS location of the user device, and wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the emergency notification content to the user device based on the GPS location of the user device.

37. A method comprising:

determining that an emergency corresponds with a location of a user device;

transmitting emergency notification content to the user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, wherein the user device is configured to;

sense at least one characteristic of the location of the user device,

determine that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, and

transmit a verification responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content; and

receiving the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content from the user device.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising receiving a GPS location of the user device from the user device.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, and a video game controller.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.

41. A tangible computer readable medium comprising:

instructions for determining that an emergency corresponds with a location of a user device;

instructions for transmitting emergency notification content to the user device, the emergency notification content comprising information about the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, wherein the user device is configured to;

sense at least one characteristic of the location of the user device,

determine that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, and

transmit a verification responsive to the determination that the sensed at least one characteristic is associated with the emergency corresponding to the location of the user device, the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content; and

instructions for receiving the verification corresponding to the emergency notification content from the user device.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further comprising instructions for receiving a GPS location of the user device from the user device.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, and a video game controller.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein the user device is selected from a group consisting of a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.